CONTENT

– From the Editor 

– Purpose-filled Ministry - Developing the Heart of a Servant

– Children’s Ministry Checkup - The Worth Of A Good Class Helper

– Book Review  –  Prayers and Promises for Women

– Classified Ads

From the Editor,

Happy Holidays to all of our MIM subscribers.  It seems like I just wrote the MIM Christmas ezine.  Time passes so quickly.

As we enter the hectic Christmas season I find it increasingly difficult to focus on the real reason for the season and not all the commercial aspects of it. Maybe you feel the same way.  I pray that each of you will make the time to pull aside from all of your busyness and reflect on spiritual matters and God's direction in your life.  It's through reflection, and not busyness, that God speaks and defines our ministry. I pray God's continued blessing and strength for you as you continue to serve him.

What's New at Ministry in Motion? 

We've added a speaker directory to the Ministry in Motion Website.  For a limited time, we are listing speakers for free. If you are a Christian speaker and would like to be listed on the website, visit the link below and complete the speaker profile form.  Feel free to share this information with others.  Our object is to build up these pages so that we have a nice selection of Christian speakers that our subscribers can use for special events, retreats, banquets, and more. Eventually we will be charging for these listings so you won't want to miss this free opportunity to gain exposure. Visit our Speaker Directory 

To view this ezine in its html format click here

Teena Stewart

Consultant/Editor for Ministry in Motion

---

Protect Your Family and Your Computer

It's getting harder and harder to protect your family and your computer online.  If you're like most, you're concerned about screening out pornography, blocking pop ups, and protecting your computer from viruses.  As if those weren't enough safety concerns to worry about, the latest threat to your computer's safety is spyware. Spyware can infiltrate you computer, cause operation problems and even allow companies and individuals to spy on your buying and online activities without you knowing it. The best source we have found for helping keep family and computer's safe online it BeSafe Online. They are a Christian managed company and. 

Here is just one testimonial to their products. "I believe every home and business in America should have a filter on their computer to protect them from the dangers of pornography and obscenity on the internet. The Bsafe product is the best filter on the market to add to your existing ISP service and we have installed it on all of our computers in the CWA offices. Don't spend one more day without protecting your family from this horrible danger."  Beverly LaHaye, Concerned Women for America

BeSafe has developed the world’s first unified security suite which adds an award winning anti-virus and firewall solution to protect your family and PC!  Find Out More. Free trial is available.  BeSafe Online. Learn More

 ---

Purpose-filled Ministry

Developing the Heart of a Servant

By Teena M. Stewart 

The longer I've been a Christian, the harder it is to hear familiar scripture passages and Christian concepts without feeling a sense of  what I call "so whatness."  The same is true regarding the Christmas story. Most of us know the familiar story about how God sent his only son to be born as a human baby in a lowly manger.  Though the story is still dear, it isn't fresh. We've seen it depicted in Christmas cards and heard it sung about on the radio.  Though we know it's filled with special meaning, grasping the true reality of what God did when he sent his son, is often beyond us. 

There have been several different movies that have dealt with the premise of swapping places where one character is wealthy or noble and he accidentally ends up taking the place of a commoner who is anything but polished or wealthy.  In reality that is what God intentionally did when he sent his son to earth to be born as a baby. He swapped places with us, the commoners. Imagine a real live king or prince doing intentionally giving up all comforts and wealth to live among his poor subjects. I can't see Prince Charles doing something like that. Can you?  A royal position means power and wealth. Who would want to relinquish it? But that is exactly what Jesus did when he came as an infant.

When God sent his son to be born in a humble stable, he was setting the stage for servant leadership.  God said, "It's not about me.  It's about you."  And he was willing to put aside his status and power to serve us. He physically rubbed shoulders with us, got dirty with us doing physical labor. He was hungry with us.  He even cried with us. Jesus was willing to do whatever he had to do to make sure he got the job done.

Servant leadership is like that.  While shopping for Christmas I was reminded of this.  A shopper stopped a clerk who was carrying an inventory item through the house wares department. She asked the clerk about a specific product.  The busy clerk replied.  "This is not my department.  You'll have to ask someone else."

It's easy to think something is not our job.  But true servant leadership recognizes that sometimes we are called and given the opportunity to serve even when it's not something we'd normally want to help with. And sometimes the area of service is quite humble. 

Not long ago a church had a crisis. The church secretary had several volunteers helping out and one of them brought the completed church bulletins and sat them down in a different location where someone else mistook them for garbage.  The Saturday evening service rolled around and panic set in when no one could find the bulletins.  Soon the hunt was on and several church leaders joined in the frantic search.  Just as everyone was ready to give up, someone thought about looking in a trash can. There they were, in the bottom of a slimy trash can among smelly wet coffee grounds and other nasty garbage. Someone had mixed them up with some of the previous week's bulletins and all had been discarded.  

It was a lesson in servant leadership.  Remember when Jesus washed his servants dusty feet?  It was a dirty and humbling job. Foot washing was just a symbol of true servant leadership.  It comes in many forms. Jesus would have been right there, helping dig through the mess. For the next few minutes several leaders "washed feet" in a sense as they sorted the good bulletins from the bad ones while others helped run off and fold additional ones.  It was an interesting sight.

Jesus was there when a young middle schooler asked the pastor, "I heard your sermon last week about serving and I'd like to help somehow.  What can I do?" He was there when the assistant pastor climbed a tall ladder in the sanctuary (not his job) to try to dust off video projector that was overheating. He was there after the church's annual fall banquet, when several people, who were not on the banquet committee, stayed late to help put away the decorations and clean up. He was there when members of a small group were asked to help baby sit and cook meals (when many didn't have the gift of hospitality) to care for a family who's  mother had been hospitalized.

Jesus modeled servant leadership in every thing he did and his actions were not done to draw attention to himself and say, "look, see how humble I am."  It was because he genuinely cared.  When God sent his one and only son to be born in a manger, it wasn't to draw attention to himself by saying, "look at what a great job I'm doing. Look at how humble I am."  He was saying, "it's not about me.  It's about you."  Maybe it's time we took our cues from him by asking, "What can I do this Christmas season?" 

It's not about us.  It's about Him.

Teena Stewart is a Ministry Team leader, a Ministry Discovery Seminar teacher, a published writer, a speaker and a consultant/editor for Ministry in Motion. To learn more about her speaking or seminars visit Speaking Topics of Jeff and Teena Stewart.  

You can contact Teena at smartwords@sbcglobal.net

---

Christian Books & Ministry Resources

Find  resources and books to help you in Christian ministry at Ministry in Motion's Bookshop.  We've developed these ministry resources from our own ministry experience.  Our bookshop also includes Christian bookstore search engines to help you search for general Christian books.  Visit our online bookshop now

---

Children’s Ministry Checkup - The Worth Of A Good Class Helper

by Karen Wingate

Classroom helpers? You might be wondering. Our church can hardly scrape together a roster of teachers, much less assistants for each class.  Teachers in the public schools handle thirty kids single-handedly and you’re telling me I need a helper for five kids?

Yes, every youth program does need more than one adult in every classroom.  If you visit today’s public school classroom, you’ll find auxiliary helpers roaming in and out of the class all day: special ed. personnel, speech and reading specialists, parent helpers, and the occasional pop in visits of the principal.  Teaching is definitely a team effort.

Though they share similarities, your time in children’s ministry is different than the school classroom.  You often have one hour to teach a lesson, lead several activities, take attendance, register visitors, talk with parents and maintain discipline.  You will be most effective in reaching kids with the important message of God’s love if you have assistance.

Moreover, in this scary time of accusations of sexual misconduct, even in the church, no adult should ever be left alone with someone else’s child.  You protect yourself when you work in pairs.

The standard teacher/child ratio in a class is one adult per the number of the average age of the children in the class. If you teach five year olds, you need ay least one adult for every five children.  So if you have fifteen children, you need one lead teacher and two assistants.

Another protest against helpers is that sometimes they are more trouble than help. Helpers often say they just stood around and felt like they weren’t needed.  How can a teacher effectively use helpers in the classroom?

-Give your helper specific jobs to do such as taking attendance, greeting new comers, and gathering supplies. 

-Put your helper in charge of a smaller portion of the lesson, such as a small group activity or the singing.  This is an excellent strategy to use for training potential teachers because it gives them experience in teaching without having to be in charge of the entire session.

-Call your helper before your teaching session to discuss what you intend to do and what you expect the helper to do.  Include your helpers by discussing children’s needs and the lesson content with them; this will help them take ownership of the program.

The assistant has part of the responsibility of being a good helper too. You can become a great asset to a lead teacher by doing the following.

-Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate.  If the teacher is struggling to get a CD player started, offer to help so the teacher can continue relating to the children.  If the children are getting out of control, go sit in the middle of the rowdy group, separating the troublemakers.  Offer to make copies if there aren’t enough worksheets.

-Always be in agreement with the teacher.  It is undermining for a helper to question what the teacher is saying in front of the children.  If you truly feel the teacher is off base in their doctrine or portrayal of a Bible story, follow the example of Priscilla and Aquilla with Apollos in Acts 18 and speak with the teacher later, privately.

-Develop a servant’s heart.  Be willing to do the seemingly unimportant jobs like cleaning up after an art project, distributing napkins for a snack, taking children to the bathroom, or quietly hugging a distressed child.  Lift up the lead teacher to the children as much as you can so the children know which adult is in charge.

Rhonda would never have made a good teacher.  She got so nervous in front of children, she could hardly speak.  But there was hardly anyone else I would rather have as a teacher’s helper.  Rhonda was kind, cheerful, was willing to do anything I asked her and when she didn’t have anything to do, would quietly stand back and pray for me.  She bluntly said one day, “I’m a follower, not a leader.  I’m glad to do anything you ask me to do, just don’t put me in charge.”  I’ve found there are many people like Rhonda.  When we allow ourselves to use helpers in our classrooms, we open our volunteer corps to an entirely new group of people.  And who knows?  Through getting into the classroom, observing teachers, and interacting with the children, people like Rhonda may one day discover they really do have the gift to teach.

Karen Wingate is a teacher of teachers.  She is known for her off the edge activity based teaching that is still solidly based on the Word of God.  Currently, she is writing curriculum for the Salvation Army’s new Sonday’s Cool programs, teaches a high School Sunday School class and oversees the Youth Ministry Team at her local church near Canton , Ohio .  You can reach Karen with comments or questions at kwingate@neo.rr.com

---

Searching for a New Ministry Position?

One of the needs we have perceived at Ministry in Motion is a service to help connect qualified ministers and church workers to ministry related and church staff positions. In order to assist our subscribers with finding ministry positions and staff, we've added a new page.  If you are presently in job search mode, or if you have a ministry position you are looking to fill, be sure to visit this page. ministry openings

---